Lawsuit against Soares dropped

Updated 10:50 pm, Friday, February 15, 2013

Times Union staff photo by Paul Buckowski --- Robert Stan Loomis, left, pharmacist and owner of Signature Compounding Pharmacy and Kenneth Michael Loomis, a pharmacist of Signature Compounding Pharmacy in Orlando, FL, are seen handcuffed in the back of a police car after being arrested on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007 during a Multi-agency raid of the drug company.
(Paul Buckowski)

Times Union staff photo by Paul Buckowski --- Robert Stan...

The operators of Orlando's Signature Compounding Pharmacy alleged their reputations were defamed when Albany County District Attorney David Soares compared their steroids' sales to Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant turned kingpin portrayed by Al Pacino in the movie "Scarface." (AP Photo/ Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

Times Union staff photo by Paul Buckowski --- Florida pharmacist Robert Stan Loomis, left, is seen in court on Monday, March 5, 2007, next to his attorney, Brian Devane, right, during his arraignment on 20-count felony indictments in connection with steroid distribution.
(Paul Buckowski)

Times Union staff photo by Paul Buckowski --- Florida...

Times Union staff photo by Paul Buckowski --- A view of the outside of the Signature Compounding Pharmacy in Orlando, FL on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007 during a Multi-agency raid of the drug company. STEROIDS
(Paul Buckowski)

Times Union staff photo by Paul Buckowski --- A view of the...

Police mug shot--Naomi Loomis Times Union
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Police mug shot--Naomi Loomis Times Union

Kenneth "Michael" Loomis was arraigned in front of Judge Herrick in Albany County Court in Albany, New York June 22, 2010 on steroid related charges. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Defendants Kirk Calvert, left, and Mike Loomis appear at an extradition hearing at the Orange county jail in Orlando, Fla., Thursday, March 1, 2007. Federal and state agents raided two pharmacies in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday in connection with an investigation in to illicit steroid distribution networks. (AP Photo/Joe Burbank, Pool)

ALBANY — The operators of a Florida pharmacy implicated in a steroids distribution case have dropped their defamation lawsuit against Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

Attorneys in the case filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the lawsuit on Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla. The agreement ends a five-year legal battle between Soares and Signature Compounding Pharmacy, which pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge in Albany County Court last week.

The pharmacy and its operators were at the center of what law enforcement officials described as a national steroids distribution ring. The case broke open in February 2007 when a multi-agency task force, led by Orlando's Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, raided the pharmacy's two Orlando locations. The owners and many of their business associates were arrested that month on felony indictments handed up in Albany.

Despite 17 convictions, including guilty pleas from several doctors who admitted selling prescriptions for cash, the criminal case and the civil lawsuit dogged Soares through two elections. The cases also left him in the extraordinary position of prosecuting five people on criminal charges while they were suing him for alleged civil rights violations and defamation in another state.

The legal wrangling dragged out for more than five years, in part, due to a series of controversial rulings by a federal judge in Orlando, Gregory V. Presnell, and an Albany County judge, Stephen W. Herrick, whose dismissal of the criminal indictment was unanimously overturned by the state Court of Appeals.

Two years ago, the civil rights allegations against Soares and other law enforcement officers were thrown out by a federal appeals court in Atlanta. But the federal court did not address the defamation allegations and Presnell ruled the case should go to trial, which was scheduled to begin in two weeks.

The defamation and injurious falsehood claims against Soares were scuttled last week when the pharmacy pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge. The plea agreement resulted in dismissal of individual criminal charges against the business's five former operators: Robert "Stan" and Naomi Loomis, the pharmacy's husband-and-wife co-owners; Kenneth "Michael" Loomis, who is Stan's brother; and former business managers Kirk Calvert and Anthony Palladino.

As part of the guilty plea, the pharmacy paid $100,000 in penalties.

Part of the pharmacy operators' civil allegations were that Soares injured their reputation and business when, following their indictment, he compared their lavish lifestyles to Tony Montana, a cocaine trafficker portrayed in the Hollywood movie "Scarface." His comments were published in the Times Union and prompted a judicial panel to issue a letter admonishing Soares about his statements on a pending case.

The company's admission to a criminal charge ended a fierce legal battle between Soares' office and attorneys for the five defendants, who for years had maintained the pharmacy they ran had broken no laws. Law enforcement officials cast the pharmacy as part of a drug pipeline they said illegally funneled steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs to thousands of customers, including professional athletes and celebrities.

Amy Tingley, an Orlando attorney for the pharmacy and its operators, cast the guilty plea as a victory for her clients.

"After being exonerated by the Albany County District Attorney's Office and receiving full payment of the sanction award for District Attorney Soares' improper conduct in hiding his ethical violations during the defamation case, my clients, Stan Loomis, Naomi Loomis, Mike Loomis, Kirk Calvert, and Tony Palladino decided to put the unpleasantness of the meritless Albany prosecution behind them by dismissing their civil suit," Tingley said.

Arthur Thorn, an attorney for Soares, responded that "the criminal case did not result in an exoneration."

"The corporate defendant entered a plea and allocuted to the very charge that had been brought," Thorn said. "If the plaintiffs felt that there was merit to their civil claim they were free to proceed with and fully litigate that matter in their home state of Florida. They opted to walk away from their case rather than to appear in a court of law."